


Aftermath

by jazzjo



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 00:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8512540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzjo/pseuds/jazzjo
Summary: Tell me where it hurts, where they've been trying to take you away from yourself.or, Alex and Maggie in the aftermath of the election of 2016





	

Alex leaned her forehead against the cool marble of the kitchen counter, her legs tangled together with Maggie's as they sat on the floor in her apartment.

 

Running her left hand through her hair, Alex choked out shakily, “They voted for someone who’d rather fund conversion therapy than A–”

 

“Alex–” 

 

“I’ve only just figured myself out,” she rasped as she pinched her eyes shut, “The two most powerful people in this country want to shock me with electricity to change me like I’m broken?”

 

Maggie reached forward, entwining her fingers with those of Alex’s free hand and rubbing soft circles with the pad of her thumb.

 

“Did I ever tell you what happened when I came out?” Maggie offered, her voice just steady enough to play off as nonchalant. 

 

Alex shook her head softly, opening her eyes to meet Maggie’s. They were warm, as they always were recently, warm and open.

 

A throaty chuckle shook its way out of Maggie’s ribcage. Batting a stray lock of hair out of her face, Maggie smiled lopsidedly before starting to speak as casually as she could. 

 

“Imagine Blue Springs, Nebraska, when I was sixteen. Population, maybe 350. We were the only Latino family within city limits,” Maggie tried to keep her voice light, “My parents were immigrants. Hardworking, blue-collar, Spanish-speaking, god-fearing immigrants.”

 

Alex turned to angle her body more closely towards Maggie’s, keeping a warm hold on her hand as Maggie continued to speak. 

 

“I got caught kissing the pastor’s daughter” another raw laugh rattled through her chest, “Behind the squat building we had Sunday school in. On a Tuesday. I think it might have mattered less to a lot of people in Blue Springs if I’d been white, like she had been. My parents were mad, at first at least, then they got scared when friends of her brother’s came after me after school one day. There was only one elementary school in the district, and one high school. I couldn’t get away from them until college.”

 

Maggie shook her head, steadying her voice. 

 

“They tried to send me to the pastor, then a psychiatrist, get it talked out of me,” Maggie bit her lip before shakily continuing, “They–”

 

“–They tried to take you away from yourself,” Alex finished, rising to her knees to draw Maggie into a hug. 

 

Maggie nodded into Alex’s shoulder blade, her voice muffled, “But you find community. You always do, somehow. We’ve faced far worse, and we always survive together. You’re not in this alone anymore, Danvers.”

 

Alex released Maggie from the hug gingerly, squatting in front of her as Maggie continued to speak through the quiver in her voice. 

 

“I spent three years trying to convince myself that I was okay before I dared to do anything about my feelings,” Maggie scratched at a phantom itch on her cheek, her voice wavering, “I always knew, I think. Always knew I was more different than just the Latina girl who had to bounce between Spanish and English for her parents. I just didn’t want to admit how different I really was, not until I realised that the issue was with the people around me and not myself. I always was plucky like that.”

 

Alex worried her lip, her hand burying itself in her hair once again as she pushed it back.

 

Pulling Alex down to sit next to her, Maggie laughed lightly as she continued, “Being queer kinda comes with a built in community, if you want it. You can find new places to belong.”

 

They sat quietly for the next few minutes, Alex rubbing absentminded circles on Maggie’s shoulder with her arm wrapped around her as Maggie leaned her head on Alex’s own. 

 

“I can’t imagine what this is like for kids,” Alex murmured, “Some of them will only ever have known a Trump administration by the time they start recognising that they’re different in some way. Some of them will never know any other way to think of themselves other than wrong.”

 

“Visibility matters,” Maggie reassured as she sighed, “It’s much different now than it was when I came out. There are plenty of out celebrities and much more online positivity than there was ten, fifteen years ago. It’ll be hard as hell, don’t get me wrong, but it’s going to take more than a cheeto man to snuff out the fire of a generation.”

 

"We can help, can't we?" Alex started, unsure.

 

Maggie grinned, a reprieve after a somber day, "We go out there and live our lives as openly as we feel safe doing so. We don't let hate win, and we keep showing those kids that we can still be ourselves, and that no amount of hate can take that away from us. We have the skills to defend ourselves and others, so we open our doors and we keep away those validated, vindicated bigots who think they have a right to hurt us now. There are places I know, the community centre and areas where lost kids tend to wander. We could always start something small, a group or something like that for them to have a safe space away from the toxicity of the outside world."

 

"We could even rope Supergirl into this," Maggie joked, tilting her head and smirking. Alex leveled her with a look, though, that made it seem like she was seriously considering that option.

 

“Okay–”

 

Alex stopped short, her head snapping around to look at Maggie, eyes wide, "God, Maggie, I didn't even think–"

 

"Like I said, Danvers – community," Maggie intoned, "We're stronger together than they are divided, and they have another thing coming if they don't think that all these marginalised communities they're trying to lock away into neat little cells are going to band together against whatever they've got coming for us. Sure, there's going to be a horde of people who feel validated in their bigotry and racism, but at least we have more than just our community standing against them now. They're going to try to rip us apart no matter if we're queer or brown or female so we might as well stand together."

 

“You’re not alone, Danvers,” Maggie assured, bumping her head against Alex’s shoulder lightly.

 

A smile cracked Alex’s stoic exterior for the first time since the polls started coming in red, “Neither are you, Sawyer.”


End file.
